


Different As Can Be

by FuturePSotUS



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 00:38:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13135503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuturePSotUS/pseuds/FuturePSotUS
Summary: Surrounded by more acceptance than ever before it made sense that Bitty would feel comfortable. And with comfort came laziness. And with laziness came discovery.





	Different As Can Be

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ampersang](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ampersang/gifts).



Bitty made his way through his freshman year at Samwell nervously, tentatively watching all of his new teammates and acquaintances for signs that they would turn on him. He waited for his novelty to wear off and for them to realize that he was a freak and that he didn’t belong. He was so sure it’d happen eventually. 

But, of course, it never did. They never ridiculed him. They ate his baking without making snide remarks after. They loved and accepted him. They didn’t fear him. Shitty constantly reaffirmed how much he meant to the team and how much they valued him, Holster offered his lap up so Bitty could join the Haus’s weekly movie nights without having to touch the dreaded sofa, and Jack literally lost sleep so they could work on his checking and he could stay on the team. Johnson even gave Bitty his dibs at the end of the year. 

Surrounded by more acceptance than ever before it made sense that Bitty would feel comfortable. And with comfort came laziness. And with laziness came--

“...Bittle…?”

Bitty screamed as all around him pots, pans, and cooking implements fell from the air and crashed to the ground. As the sound of metal reverating off linoleum faded away a pervasive silence fell, dampening the entire Haus. 

In complete panic mode, Bitty could only just manage to stay upright. He stared dumbly at Jack who blinked back at him. A million excuses ran through his head each stupider and less believable than the last. 

Finally, in a croaking voice he threw a Hail Mary and said, “Hey there, Jack. What’s new?”

Jack laughed, his voice pitched high like puberty had passed by him. 

“What’s new?” he dumbly repeated. 

Bending down, Bitty began to pick up all of the fallen baking supplies. He quickly threw them one by one into the sink, studiously avoiding eye contact as he worked. 

“Sure! What’s new? You’re usually in class ‘bout now!”

Would this work he wondered. Maybe if he just kept cleaning and didn’t raise his head he’d get away with it. 

“Yeah,” Jack replied a beat too late. His eyes tracked the under classman’s movements but he didn’t attempt to help. “I am.”

Keep your head down, Bitty reminded himself. Clean up the evidence, he told himself. 

“But you’re not today?” he pressed. 

“No, not today.”

Ok, Bitty internally conceded, maybe this wasn’t going away on its own. But in lieu of a better plan he continue. 

“Why not?”

“Cancelled.”

“Well then, lucky you! Weren’t you just complaining last night that you felt like you wanted to re-read this week’s assignment before you turned it in? Now you can! I was just about to make a batch of brownies and maybe a batch or two of cookies when you startled me! So if you get to work now I’m sure you can finish by the time they’re ready to eat!”

He was babbling. He needed to stop before things got out of hand. Well, more out of hand.

“So you should get going,” Bitty straightened his back and made a shoo’ing motion with both hands, “Go on, I’ll call you back when there’s pie- oh! But not pie because I’m not making pie! I’m making brownies! And cookies! You’ll love them anyway! Promise! GO!!!!”

Having successfully scared Jack out the kitchen Bitty sent the rest of the mess on the floor flying into the sink and sank down in front of the oven to hyperventilate. Before he could fall too far into a blinding panic however, Jack reappeared. He squatted in front of Eric and held his hands out so they hovered in the air on either side of Eric’s shoulders without touching. 

“Breathe in,” Jack commanded in his best captain’s voice. He paused for several beats, “And breathe out.” 

They continued until Bitty could manage on his own. 

“Thanks,” he mumbled shakily. “I must be stressed about a paper or something.”

“Bittle.”

Bitty snuck a peek from between his fingers but Jack didn’t look like he was going anywhere anytime soon. He looked like he had questions. Bitty sighed and tried to stall some more. 

“I need to make brownies. I promised Ransom and Holster that there’d be some for them when they got home tonight.”

“Okay... but maybe we could take a second to euh talk about it?”

“Do we have to? Couldn’t you just pretend that we don’t have anything that needs talking about?”

“Bittle you were levitating half of the stuff in the kitchen when I walked in!”

“Maybe I wasn’t?”

Jack plopped onto the kitchen floor next to him and ran his hands through his hair, “You were though.”

It was unfair how earnest he looked and sounded, thought Bitty, it made everything so much harder. He stared at Jack until he came to a decision he could only pray he wouldn’t regret.

“I was, yeah.”

“So you can levitate things.”

Jack’s head popped up, surprised that Bitty had owned up so quickly. He said each word gently as if it were fragile and liable to break if he didn’t handle it with care. 

Bitty bit his lip as he bobbled his head indecisively. “I can.”

“You can do more?” guessed Jack.

“I’m a wizard. I wasn’t raising the pans with my mind or anything. It was a spell, I wanted to make cookies and brownies before y’all got home and, well, magic is faster. Like having ten KitchenAids.”

Jack’s eyebrows disappeared into his bangs, “Having magic is like having a KitchenAid?”

Bitty giggled manically and huffed out a breath. He needed to stay calm. Maybe talking wasn’t the way to go about explaining this, Jack did better with action, not words. He stood and offered a hand to his captain.

“Sit at the table and watch.”

Allowing himself only one nervous glance over his shoulder before beginning, Bitty focused his attention on the task at hand. Within minutes he had the dishes cleaned and back in position. On one end of the counter a whisk flung itself through lumpy batter while next to it flour measured itself into a bowl and butter incrementally hopped in after it. At the other end, more butter spread itself into every corner of several pans while scissors cut their way down parmentment paper to line cookie sheets. In the midst of it all stood Bitty who supervised the work with an efficient eye, making small corrections to the spells as needed. 

Once he’d gotten things underway Bitty found he could ignore Jack fairly easily. It wasn’t as if anyone would ever describe the Canadian as chatty during the best of times and Bitty knew that recovering from a shock like this rendered even the most talkative quiet. Oh, there would be questions eventually but, for now, he enjoyed baking in peace. 

Bitty didn’t speak until the dishes had put themselves away, he’d set the appropriate timers, and manually arranged all of the trays in Besty.

“Can’t you cook them with magic?” Jack asked as soon as Bitty turned to him. 

Ruefully Bitty nodded and shrugged, “I can but I swear it doesn’t taste the same. And poor Betsy’s just so tempermental these days I feel better puttin’ everything in myself.”

“Right.”

Bitty sat down across from Jack and folded his hands in his lap. He waited for the next question. 

Tentatively, Jack tried to joke, “So does this mean Hogwarts is real?”

“Sorry, no,” Bitty appreciated the effort, “But on the bright side it does means that you didn’t miss getting your letter.”

“It also means that wizards are real and I’m not one of them though,” Jack pointed out.

“Oh yeah, true,” Bitty offered a little smile, “Sorry?”

“It’s ok. I struggle enough with being a Muggle, eh.”

Bitty giggled, “We don’t actually use that word. As far I know J.K. Rowling isn’t a witch so…”

Smiling too Jack regained most of his usual surety, “Is that why you didn’t use a wand?”

“Wands are a little outdated, don’t you think? A little too conspicuous for the 21st century.”

“But you still need something?”

Eric pulled his keys from his front pocket and handed them to Jack who looked down, confused at his palm. 

“Euh… what?”

“The keychain is my version of a wand. Just so long as it’s on my person or like, really close by I can do magic.”

Jack separated the keychain from the keys to examine it. Shaped like a figure skate and made of heavy metal, it’s silver backside shone brightly while the white enamel on the front was free from dings and scratches. 

“It’s pretty but… it feels normal?”

“To you maybe,” Bitty refrained from snatching it back though his fingers itched with the wrongness of letting someone else, a non-magical someone else especially, examine it.

“What’s it feel like to you?”

“Normal,” Bitty grinned. “But I imagine we have different definitions of the word.”

Jack mirrored his look and folded his fingers around the skate to squeeze it briefly before handing it back. Eric hoped he didn’t look too desperate or guilty as he immediately pocketed it again. 

“Why are you here?”

Jack cringed. The question sounded more like an accusation than he’d meant. From the way Bitty’s face had frozen and his shoulders had stiffened he hadn’t gotten away with either. He tried to belatedly soften his words. 

“I don’t mean like that. I mean… well… euh if there’s magic and you have it why do you need a college degree?”

“Oh…” breathed out Bitty. He took a second to calm his heart before replying, “Harry Potter is just a book. You can't expect witches and wizards to actually function in today's society without at least a bachelor's degree, can you?"

Jack gave a one-shouldered shrug, “Guess not. But do you have to go to school to learn euh-- spells and stuff?”

“Yea.”

Bitty took pity on Jack and settled in for a longer explanation. 

“There’re special schools across the country. But they’re just like alternative high schools really, nothing grand or too special. We learn all kinds of spells but, you know, algebra and English lit too. Learning spells isn’t actually that hard once you’ve got your ‘wand’ and a bit of self control. It’s mostly memorizing what words you want to say to make things do what you want them to. And if you ever forget there are plenty of books to look stuff up. I mean honestly, it’s basically a normal school. We even had to take all those horrible standardized tests that the kids in public schools took.”

Jack seemed to follow Bittle’s explanation up until that. He held up a hand to stop Bitty and gaped as he tried to marshal his thoughts. 

“Holy shit,” Jack muttered softly, “So the government knows about you?!”

Eric tried not to laugh, he really did. But the idea was just too funny. 

“Lord, no!” he giggled, “Can you even imagine! No, no, honey, they just thought we were a religious school. As far as the government is concerned we had ‘religion’ classes.”

Jack, god bless him, wasn’t offended and joined Bitty in his laughter. It filled the kitchen as they released the tension that had gathered since Jack’s initial discovery. Grinning from ear to ear Jack glanced at the oven before turning back to ask, “Can you show me a trick?”

“Oh, you think they’re just tricks, do you, Mister Zimmermann?” teased Bitty. 

“Sorry! Sorry! Is that offensive? Can you euh, show me something?”

“Making 3 dozen cookies and two pans of brownies wasn’t enough?”

“You know what I mean, Bittle. Something that doesn’t involve baking. I’ve seen you do that without any magical help plenty of times. You’re a wizard in the kitchen.”

“And out of it too! Ok… how about…”

Between them on the table a series of transparent hockey players began to glide around, passing pucks and taking shots. Without time to first fiddle with the spell Bitty didn’t try anything too fancy, but he left them to play and glanced up at Jack’s face. Unblinking, Jack watched the men, his awe at their presence nearly palpable. Eric’s stomach rolled pleasantly with the knowledge that Jack seemed to be accepting him and his magic. 

But it lurched unpleasantly only a moment later when Jack asked, “You don’t use your magic during hockey do you?”

“What?” Bitty drew a sharp breath, “No! I don’t! I’d never!”

As Bitty’s focus broke the illusion disappeared. Jack reached out as if to try and grab it and make it stay. Concentrating on the empty table he regretted having spoken. 

“No. You wouldn’t, I’m sorry I said that.”

“I mean you know me, Jack! I know I’m not exactly NHL material but I’m not going to cheat to look better!”

“No, I know. I know. I’m sorry.”

“Besides, believe it or not, it’s way more fun not to use magic! Of course I can do cool tricks if I’ve got a spell that lifts me and spins me. But it’s more impressive if I can lift and spin myself!”

Jack reached out and grabbed Bitty’s hands out of the air. He clasped them together tightly between his own. 

“I shouldn’t have said that, Bittle, and I’m really sorry I did. I know you’re not that kind of person.”

“Thank you, I guess it makes sense though, this is ummmm kind of shock I’d imagine?”

With a weak chuckle Jack nodded and let go of Bitty’s hands. 

“You could say that. It’d be an understatement but, yeah, you could call it a shock.”

Bitty chewed on his lip and squirmed, clearly not sure Jack was telling the whole truth so he He picked one hand back up, “That doesn’t make it a bad shock though, eh? Just a- euh- a shocking one. You’re still Bittle, you still annoy me by singing in the shower on Sunday morning and you still have to get up early to do checking practice.”

“Thanks, Jack,” Bitty gently pulled his hand back. “I guess I’m more useful now, right?”

He’d begun to stand but Jack paused and tilted his head to one side, “Eh?”

“I mean… I’m a wizard. I have magic. So I can be more useful. I can do stuff for you, you know? Like clean your bathroom and whatever.”

“No,” Jack sat down and again grabbed Eric’s hands. Bitty watched as he twined their fingers together and held on tight. His heart beat wildly. 

“No, Bittle-- Bitty-- Bits, just, no. You don’t have to do anything differently just because I know, ok? I don’t want anything from you and you don’t owe me anything. This is just part of you, eh? So I’m not going to suddenly start demanding you wave your wand, er keychain, and make my bed or magically lighten my equipment bag or something.”

“Oh,” Bitty looked over at him with wide eyes. Growing up he’d always heard stories of non-magic people taking advantage of the magic in their lives as soon as they’d found out that they could. That’s why you kept your powers secret, to protect yourself from the demands of others. 

“There’s nothing? You’re sure? I know I’m not the greatest student but I promise I’m good at magic!”

“I’m sure you are but seriously, no. The only thing you could give me is…” Jack cast around for something non-magical he could ask of his friend, “Is dibs on the first brownie when they’re done?”

“Oh,” repeated Bitty, “Yeah! Easy as pie! Thank you.”

Jack squeezed his hand for a final time and stood. Leaving the kitchen he called out, “You’re welcome. I do want to read over that paper again though so call me when the brownies are ready!”

Bitty’s hand drifted to his pocket where he pulled out his keys. He ran his thumb over the warm enamel of the ice skate and let all his breath rush out of his lungs at once. He felt exhausted, the emotional upheaval of the last half an hour had drained him but, he also felt more comfortable than he’d imagined possible. 

With a little flick of his wrist he sent a gust of wind up the stairs. Jack shrieked as it goosed him.

“BITTLE!”

Eric giggled and pocketed his key chain. He was safe here. He was accepted.


End file.
